What kind of special skill we are talking about ?
Are you sure it is only skill that keeps him (them) on top or they are
blood related to top management?
If it is only skill - then get your hands on it sooner the better.

From the other side it is actually missmanaged situation. What if he
is permanently away for any reason ? [ Don't go that far :) ]

Like he wins lottery and decide to go fishing for the rest of his life...
[ I wld go that far :)) ]

What is gonna happen ?
If that skill is so mission criticall, then managment should by all means find the way to educate more people to be able to perform the same.

Otherwise they hv not only to put up with this guy, but also
to sincerely wish him well.

2c



>Currently I work at the best job I've ever had, for the best boss I've ever had, but there are some weird things here that frustrate me.
>
>There is a guy who has some very severe inter-personal problems. He is constantly angry, makes unreasonble demands, won't listen to reason. But he also has managed to acquire a skill which nobody else here has. Granted he has got that through being angry, hording equipment and knowledge etc. His wife also works here he she is the same except more vocally angry. She even kicked a guy in the crotch 10 years ago, but never was fired. Both of these people are a huge demoralizing force in our otherwise great dept.
>
>The husband in particular is extremely adept at doing bad things, but then getting rewarded for him. Here is his latest ploy. He started working at home. Not coming into work or coming into work for very short number of hours. Then he would also do some work on the weekends or evenings then bank that time and further reduce the amount of time he is in the office. He is able to do this because he has a work laptop. Which by the way was never given to him, but he allocated to himself. A whole other story. Anyhow, after months of staff complaining the supervisor and dept director are finally doing something about this. They have confronted him as to why he is doing this he has said he can't work at work because:
>- it is too noisy at work
>- the laptop screen isn't good enough for him to to graphic editing, so he has to use his home computer
>- we haven't provided him good graphic editing software so he has to use his computer at home
>
>The director is now providing him with a private office and a faster computer with a better screen. Only 1 person in the office so far has a private office, that is the director himself. I understand that being a good manager means that you don't confront your employees. You try to find compromises when you can. But every time this guy does something bad, he gets rewarded for it. I sometimes thing he does bad things so that he can state a list of demands that he knows he willl get.
>
>My boss a good boss to me and all the other employees and he isn't stupid. He knows how this guy acts. He knows he is being taken advantage of. Perhaps he doesn't fully understand how demoralizing it is to the other employees when he rewards this guy and his wife. My boss is retiring in 1.5 years and the assistant director is much tougher and she will tell people what's what to their face, but she is totally caving with this guy too.
>
>The thing is sure that he has a special skill, but if we canned him, we would have someone trained up to that still within 6 months. Untill then we would rely on the vendors and mfrs for expertise.
>
>Commiserate with me!